‘Corona tracking’ WHO team initiates investigation in Wuhan… “What will I find out in two weeks?”

Enter 2021.01.29 15:30 | Revision 2021.01.29 15:32

The World Health Organization (WHO) investigation team began an investigation to clarify the origin of coronavirus infection in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in central China on the 29th. Thirteen members of the WHO investigation team arrived in Wuhan on the 14th and were quarantined for 14 days until the day before. The WHO investigation was conducted in Wuhan in December 2019, more than a year after the outbreak of unexplained pneumonia. The field investigation period is only two weeks, and it is observed that the investigation team will not be able to find out much.

According to the WHO announcement, the investigation team will meet with the Chinese investigation team on the 29th to discuss plans for future activities. One of the WHO research teams, Marion Coopmans of the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, said on Twitter that day, “I finally have a face-to-face meeting with my colleagues who only saw through zoom video conferencing.” After entering China, the WHO investigation team conducted a videoconference with the Chinese investigation team during the quarantine period to review the contents of the preliminary investigation in China.

The WHO said the investigation team will visit Wuhan Huanan Fish Market, Wuhan Virus Research Institute, Wuhan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) laboratory, and hospitals for hospitalization of infected people, where the outbreak of pneumonia was first reported. It is known that the investigation team will contact and interview some of the initial confirmed cases.

Peter Ben Embarek, head of the WHO investigation team, said, “Although the Huanan fish market is closed, experts still think there is a lot to see and experience there.” , I have to talk to the merchants who were there at the time.” When the Chinese government first announced the outbreak of pneumonia on December 31, 2019, most of the infected people were merchants in the Huanan fish market. It was confirmed that raw poultry and wild animals were sold as well as general seafood.

The United States and others believe that the WHO expert team’s investigation will not be sufficient to determine the origin of the corona. What would he find out after only two weeks of field research. Above all, there are concerns that the investigative team’s access to data on the Chinese side will be severely restricted. In an interview with Reuters, the research team’s Thea Fisher told Reuters that “the success of this investigation and (corona) origin tracing depends 100% on access to relevant data.” Without the cooperation and support of the Chinese government, sufficient investigation is impossible.

The US and China have set up a confrontation ahead of the WHO’s full-scale field investigation. “The United States wants a strong and clear international investigation into the origins of the corona pandemic in China,” said Joe Biden’s administration’s White House spokesman, Jen Saki. At a regular briefing on the 28th, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhao Lizhen replied, “Politicization of all kinds of assumptions, negative speculation, and interpretation of words and actions is not appropriate.”